Feature Request: Directory Metadata File

[zsteinkamp]

Hi there --

Enjoying this software so far! It's almost exactly what I was looking for.

One feature that I would appreciate is a directory metadata file. This could be used, for example, to override the displayed title in the directory listing (i.e. it allows for prettier names than people would normally use for directories). Another use could be a default location (lat/lon), brief description (yeah the .md functionality handles this...), or even permissions or sort order. It could be something like .metadata.yml to allow for future expansion of features.

Thanks!

[bpatrik]

I have a vague memory that this was already requested, but I can find it now. Generally I'm not in favor if this feature: generally I would like to keep the app as automatic as possible, I.e: no extra setting / metadata addition is needed, the app figures out everything just by looking at the raw data.

The app and modern OS support special characters in folder names (I know that there are exceptions)

Setting per directory sort order is already possible with pgconfig. See #177 and: https://github.com/bpatrik/pigallery2/blob/0ee5dacf70fca3d8132223d7feacbb1b15a6009b/src/common/PG2ConfMap.ts#L9-L15

One followup question: Where would you use a coordinate if a directory had one ? That is possible to infare from the photos in the folder.

[zsteinkamp]

Thanks for the reply! Sorry I didn't include the word "optional" in the first sentence -- that was my intent.

My use case is I prefix the directory name with a datestamp (e.g. "2023-02-24") so that ls shows the folders in chronological order. This isn't always desired in the output. Regarding location, I use some cameras that do not have GPS functionality, so it would be nice to be able to manually set a location. Perhaps I should explore something like exiftool to add the lat/lon to the images themselves.

Anyhow, thanks for your time investment in this software!

[mblythe86]

Perhaps I should explore something like exiftool to add the lat/lon to the images themselves.

pigallery2 has support for *.gpx files. So, you could create a simple one with just a waypoint or something.

[grasdk]

@zsteinkamp @bpatrik Just throwing around an idea here: It is probably out of spec, but you could have a .folder.xmp or similar, using the XMP format for metadata. If present "title" could replace the folder name of the parent folder and any of the "timestamp"-tags could replace the directory date, which could also solve: https://github.com/bpatrik/pigallery2/issues/751

Also I'm not sure if this would require a lot of work with the data-model and extra tables in the database in order to work... so for now, just an idea.

[bpatrik]

This functionality should be possible to implement as an extension.

I think that is the best approch doing so. I find this FR to be rather niche, so I don't think this should be part of the main app for now.